Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As an operator in the tourism industry, I acknowledge the important role short-term lettings platform play for the industry. Dr. Lyons referred to the housing crisis and the fact that these platforms are not having a huge impact relatively speaking.

We are not going to solve the housing crisis with short-term lettings, but we are looking at whether it is having an effect on the homelessness crisis which we are facing in Dublin. Moving on from that, there is a heavy concentration of short-term lettings in areas with high levels of tourism, but at the same time there is a high concentration of homeless people within those areas as well. While the scale is not big, there are nearly 700 families still living in hotels today, yet there are potentially a few hundred houses available. They could be available in the areas in which there are destinations popular with tourists. If we had 7,000 extra bed spaces in Dublin tomorrow morning, how strong would the platform of short-term lettings be? What impact is the significant shortfall of bed spaces in Dublin having? Equally we must say that there are 690 families living in hotels and that is also having an impact. None of us seems to able to get our hands on information regarding the levels of short-term lettings before these web-based platforms arrived. Is this a completely new phenomenon? Is the heavy concentration of short-term lettings in areas with high levels of tourism causing a ripple effect which is shoving the crisis further out of the city? It it driving the shortfall because bed space is taken up in these areas? Is it having a ripple effect in areas surrounding that sweet honey pot?